Story+2006-06-17+Detroit,+MI

´´Good evening, friends....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´John Henry´´**

´´Good evening, everybody....good evening, Detroit....and wherever the hell we are right now (chuckles) welcome, picnickers....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´O Mary Don´t You Weep´´**

´´Sam Bardfeld on the fiddle, thank you.....welcome, welcome, thank you for coming out tonight, thank you so much.....got a beautiful night....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Atlantic City´´**

´´Thank you....yes, yes, yes....oh yes, this is good weather for it, for singing!...let´s test those Motor City vocal cords....(?) help me out, kid....(crowd is singing the chorus quite quietly) ....that´s pretty pitiful....come on, man, you´re Motor City, you´ve got more noise than that! try it again (starts singing the chorus with the crowd)....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Old Dan Tucker´´**

´´An ´Old Dan Tucker´-fan over there....this song is approximately 145 years old than that person (chuckles) alright, pretty good....stay back....oh yeah, this was originally a gospel song called ´Hands on the plow,´ was rewritten in the 50s by Civil Rights activist Alice Wine, a great freedom song....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Eyes On The Prize´´**

´´That´s Marc Anthony Thompson on guitar and vocals....yes, yes, alright, this was a song, this was a, uh, historical ballad originated in the immediate aftermath of, uh, Jesse James´ murder by a friend for 25 dollars (chuckles) it was written by minstrel Billy Gashade, it was rewritten by Woody Guthrie in 1939 and it proves the point that - what do they say? (?) when legend becomes fact, they write the legend (chuckles)....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Jesse James´´**

´´Yes, yes (chuckles) that´s right, Cindy Mizelle on the vocals....Curtis King, the lovely Lisa Lowell....oh yes, yes, alright....we got a song, uh, a great work song....and, uh, one of the, probably the greatest in the forgotten genre of mule-appreciation songs, there was a time when mule-appreciation songs....were an essential part of the cultural landscape....oh, this was written by Thomas Allan in 1905 when the Erie Canal, in the mid-1800s, was the Eighth Wonder of the world, it changed the face of a large part of the country by the way they got goods in from the market, ´Low Bridge....Everybody Down,´ alright, you can give me a hand with this one, all I need is (Bruce starts the chant)....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Erie Canal´´**

´´This was a, uh....a song, it´s only been recorded twice, it was written during the Dustbowl by Bill and Agnes Cunningham....can´t believe it´s only been recorded twice, it´s filled with so much rich detail and it´s so beautifully written....when I was, uh, I remember when I was a kid, reading about the Dustbowl and they was the kind of events that you thought didn´t happen any more and, uh, uh, we lived to see....people pulled up from their homes and sent to different parts of the country with nothing more than they could carry, this is, uh....´Where is my Oklahoma home? It´s been blown away´....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´My Oklahoma Home´´**

´´Thank you....alright.....alright, I´ve got my boy traveling with me tonight.....protect your daughters (chuckles) he´s around somewhere.....it´s ten o´clock, do I know where my child is? (chuckles) alright, they, uh....did the whole all-night thing (?) when you´re a teenager, you like to stay up all night, stayed up till ten o´clock, that´s pretty, ten o´clock this morning (chuckles) that´s pretty good (laughs) he´s probably sleeping in the back (chuckles) anyway, this is for Ev´....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Long Time Comin´´**

´´Where´s my boy? (chuckles)....thank you....yes....oh yeah....this was, uh, first published in 1815....in Dublin....they had to write these then and still gotta write ´em now, it´s a shame...´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Mrs. McGrath´´**

´´Thank you, thank you, we had our first, uh, our first paying, our first job down in New Orleans for the New Orleans Jazz Festival....and it´s hard to explain what New Orleans is like, I´ve been telling the folks every night, you can´t really get it from the television or from the newspapers, but it´s, uh, you go for miles and miles in the city you seen an American city that´s been emptied out, it´s, uh, lost, I think, close to a 100,000 homes and the city lost close to half its population....if you´re a musician, New Orleans is, uh, sacred ground, so many of the influences that, that we´re playing through up here tonight....came, uh, this music coming from overseas and enter into New Orleans, getting stirred up, turned into rhythm´n´blues and folk and jazz music and rock´n´roll....it´s given so much to the, uh, it´s so much a part of the soul of the country, it´s given so much to our cultural life, it´s given so many beautiful things and beautiful people that it, it deserves to be taken care of....and uh....it´s, uh (?) very, very unusual place and uh....you know, people move on, people forget what, so quickly these days but, uh, it´s just given so much to us that, uh, it´s worth, it´s worth a national effort to put the city back on its feet so....this was a song, uh, written, written in the beginning of the Depression by a guy named Blind Alfred Reed and, uh, I added three, three verses, three more verses of it when we´re just about to get to New Orleans and, uh, it´s sort of (?) of our President´s trip down there where he unfortunately managed to gut the only agency through political cronyism that was there to help American citizens in times of disaster....but that´s all in a day´s work....these days, so we´ll let the music do the talking, this is ´How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?´....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?´´**

´´Yes, yes, yes, we are all climbing....Jacob´s Ladder....Jacob, of course, was a fellow in the Bible, was always getting it wrong....and God gave him a chance after a chance to get it right....he failed his brother...he failed his family....God kept giving him a chance after a chance to get it right (?)....so we´re here tonight....we want to entertain you....we want to make you dance.....but we´re here on a mission also....we want to raise you up....we want to brace/praise it up....but I can´t get there on my own....I need you to walk with me....I need you to go with me....we´ve got to share the pizza and the beer....oh, we´ve got to go step by step....inch by inch....mile by mile....rung by rung....hand over hand....day after day....choice after choice....we´re all climbing Jacob´s Ladder....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´´Jacob´s Ladder´´**

´´That´s good news!....yes, it is....that´s right....oh yes, thank you, thank you, thank you.....oh, yes, thank you, woo!....alright....this was kind of the song that got our old adventure up here started....did this for a tribute to, uh, Pete, Pete Seeger, cut this song.....it´s probably, I guess, the most important political protest song of all-time, like I´ve been telling everybody, I hate to put it in, just in that box because there´s so much more to it....it´s, uh, it´s still sung all around the world wherever people are struggling, it´s one of those songs that´s become such a big piece of American life it disappears and you can lose your, you can lose your ear for it and forget how, uh....it´s, how beautiful and intense it is but, uh, anyway....gonna send this one out to Dave´s mom (chuckles)(?) Sister (chuckles) this one´s for you, sweetheart....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´We Shall Overcome´´**

´´Oh yes....yes....woo!....they, uh, they haven´t quite figured out how to handle the glory yet, you know, it´s, it´s still....oh, man, gonna send this out to our friends from the Cleaners Foodbank....yeah, they´re, uh....here in southeastern Michigan assisting the struggling citizens, they served nearly 24 million meals last year....and uh....hunger and the poverty in the country remains a national shame on all of us and, uh, the Cleaners Foodbank is out there ....doing a good work on the frontlines, they could use your support, if you see them on the way out, please help our friends from the Cleaners Foodbank....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Bring ´Em Home´´ (following ´´Pay Me My Money Down´´)**

´´Alright, put your dancing shoes on....a young folk song writer by the name of J.R.Robertson ....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Rag Mama Rag´´**

´´Come on, Sam....come on, kid....wash that thing....be careful - that´s Patti´s silverware....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´You Can Look´´**

´´Alright....I think this is polka country, isn´t it?....somebody brought the accordion in Texas, it went across the border, came back as mariachi and cajunga music....(singalong, the crowd´s singing quite quietly)....a moment of truth, here you go, go! (keeps doing the singalong bit, the band kicks in) oh no, not us yet!...wait a minute, band, we´ve got to hear the folks do it yet (the band stops) we can fix anything, just like that, no big deal, let´s see how you guys do (the crowd sings their ´na-na´-bit louder) that´s right, na, na, na....go ahead, uh, huh....uh, huh....one more time a little louder and we´re gonna jump on over your heads ....I want some of that cotton candy, that´s right (chuckles)(the band kicks in again).... ´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´Ramrod´´**

´´I want to thank everybody for coming out tonight, thank you for coming out on this beautiful night....we hope you had a great time.....I wanna thank you for coming out and taking a chance on our little adventure here, thank you so much....we appreciate that, thank you....oh, this was a song that I....well, we learned, we learned for, uh, New Orleans and, uh, it´s kind of the theme song of the city, but before I go into that, I wanna, also wanna thank all these wonderful musicians for coming my way....the, uh....the whole thing was kind of, kind of this big happy accident, you know, you really couldn´t sit back and put together a band like this, I wouldn´t know how to describe it to myself (chuckles) but it´s a bunch of old friends and new friends and I want to thank them for their dedication and their wonderful musicianship....Marty Rifkin on the steel guitar....Charlie Giordano on the keyboards and the accordion....the beautiful Cindy Mizelle....Curtis King....the lovely Lisa Lowell on vocals.... the charismatic Mr.Larry Eagle on drums....Art ´King of the rock´n´roll tuba´ Baron, the Silver Fox....Richie La Bamba Rosenberg....Mark ´Love Man´ Pender (?)....Eddie ´Thin Man´ Manion, thank you, Edward....we got friends, we got blood relatives onstage, Frank Bruno on guitar....fabulous Sam Bardfeld on the fiddle....(?) Greg Liszt on banjo....the beautiful and very popular Miss Soozie Tyrell....fabulous Jeremy Chatzky on the standup bass....Marc Antony Thompson on guitar and vocals....I thank them, I thank them and I thank you, we´ll send this one out to you, this was a song we learned, we were going to New Orleans as we played with, uh, I tell the folks every night, with some nervousness and trepidation, it´s kind of the theme song of the city but I came across a couple of verses, uh, The Weavers sang these verses on their version and I also came across it in an old folkbook that I had, the two verses sort of explain kind of in a nutshell what our whole project is a about up here tonight so, uh, we´ll send this one out to you, wishing you God bless and, uh ....good fortune, thanks again for coming out.....´´
 * 17.06.06 Detroit, MI, intro to ´´When The Saints Go Marching In´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//